Bright Blue Eyes
by TinySlippers
Summary: Rather an unusual story. A "what if" sort of thing. There's really no way to explain it without giving the entire thing away.
1. Captain's Niece

**Chapter one**

**Captain's niece.**

**As a huge Septimus fan, I simply had to write this story once I got the idea for it. It's a "what if" piece that just struck me as I was watching the movie. It follows the plot of the movie up until Tristan and Yvaine are aboard the flying vessel.**

"Uncle Dauntless," a small female voice said as Captain Shakespeare internally winced at the name that only his close family used. There was a reason that he had changed his name. "Who were those people?" the girl asked.

The captain shook his head. As much as he loved his niece, immensely proved by the fact that she was on his ship with no questions asked, he could not disclose that information. He did not know the answer himself.

"I don't honestly know sweetheart. I just don't know."

Without realizing it, the girl batted her eyes and pouted. "Then you just have to find out," she fussed. Her voice lent a characteristic that made it sound less pleading than the words she had used.

"I'll do my best," Captain Shakespeare promised. "In the morning. I already told the crew to put them both in the brig for the night."

"Alright," the girl conceded. She understood that he couldn't exactly reverse orders on a whim. "But make sure that when you finish 'interrogating' them that you get them some better clothes. The girl was only in a bathrobe. Rather awful if you ask me."

"Danu, you know better than to be spying," Captain Shakespeare admonished the young woman standing before him. "You are supposed to stay in your cabin. Especially when you know the crew members are roaming about."

The girl, Danu, sighed. She knew the rules that the Captain had given her were for her own protection. She simply found them insanely frustrating. Infuriating.

"It's not my fault that I just happened to be sitting in my cabin reading with the door open. The crew was supposed to be on deck helping you collect lightning. Either that or sleeping so that they can help later."

Danu had been doing exactly what she said she had been. Sitting and reading with the door open. In the middle of a storm everyone who was awake was expected to be on deck to help. Everyone but Danu.

Danu could not have been expected to anticipate the arrival of visitors on board the ship. Neither the Captain nor his first mate could have predicted that. But still.

"You know why I have the rules that you are expected to follow," Captain Shakespeare said. "To protect you. Your mother would never forgive me if I let anything bad happen to you."

Danu huffed in frustration. "Mum never lets me do anything. She even thinks that letting me walk down the street will cause me to come to harm. Do I look fragile to you?"

Captain Shakespeare hesitated. "Do you want the honest answer or the nice one?" he asked a minute to late.

Danu screamed and threw her hands in the air. She was sick and tired of being treated like a porcelain doll. She knew that women, unless they were witches, rarely left home and that as a small woman she was expected to follow that example more than ever. But now, she had seen a woman who had dared to leave the safety of the place she called home.

She was clearly in danger and fighting for her life. She would probably never choose to leave her house if she could avoid it. But, that woman would make the choice. She would not answer to anyone who "claimed" to be concerned for her safety.

Oh, how Danu longed to have that choice. She longed to be able to have adventures without the constant supervision of a relative. To be free to come and go as she pleased.

The only reason that Danu had even been allowed to accompany Captain Shakespeare on this voyage was that he was her uncle. Her mother trusted her brother to keep Danu safe from harm.

It was so frustrating for her. No one even trusted her to walk ten yards by herself without getting hurt in some fashion. They all assumed that she would fall and break one of her bones.

Being a small woman hurt Danu's cause even more. It was hard to convince anyone that you could take care of yourself and be independent when you were at least a full head shorter than everyone else around you. And slender to the point where no one ever asked you to lift any thing, that made it practically impossible.

Danu did find it difficult to lift some things. But she was stronger than she looked. It was annoying when stronger people were asked to lift anything larger than a piece of parchment for her.

Flopping onto her bed she groaned. She needed to stop being so negative. After all, she was in a rather unique position. On a flying ship with pirates, even if they would never hurt a fly. And, even if they never saw her.

And tomorrow, whether her uncle liked it or not, Danu would find out who the mysterious visitors were. She might even get to hear tales of the things that they had seen.

With a giggle and a smile on her face, Danu drifted off to the world of dreams.

**A/N: So I have the next chapter all written and such. I am hoping to get some feedback before I post it though, so that will probably happen sometime next week.I am rather busy so this may have a few long delays.**

**To anyone reading any of my other stories, I will get back to them and finish. It just may take a while.**

**Yes, I did steal the name I have for Captain Shakespeare from somewhere else. Imaginary cookies to you if you know, and there will be other names from the same place should it take a few hints for you to know.**

To all the Septimus fans, sorry. He won't appear till chapter 3. But I'll get him in. It is about him after all.


	2. Tristan and Yvaine

**Chapter 2**

**Tristan and Yvaine**

Danu woke up with the sun. Growing up on land had led her to create a habit out of rising with the sun. While she had a schedule, the crew slept rather sporadically. A storm could be born at any moment, and they had to be well rested.

The pirates would be asleep for a few more hours at the very least. But not the captain. He would be up preparing how to handle his talk with his "prisoners." And then there was the obvious navigation charting for the next couple of days. He had to make sure that his ship wasn't overloaded.

Throwing on a cloak, Danu opened the door and peered around the corner. Satisfied that everyone was either still in bed or too tired to be roaming the corridors, apart from the captain, she slipped out of her cabin and crept down the hall to the captain's rooms.

Taking small deliberate steps, she reached Captain Shakespeare's cabin without a sound from the floorboards to indicate her presence. Opening the door required a tad more skill than creeping along the hall, but was just as silent.

"Uncle Dauntless," Danu said. She always announced her arrival with spoken words. "When are you going to find out who the two people in the brig are?"

"First off," the captain said not looking up from the couple dozen maps cluttering his desk, "I do believe that I told you to not call me that. The name aboard this ship is Captain Shakespeare."

"Fine," Danu muttered. "You're still Uncle Dauntless to me no matter how much you deny it."

"And in response to your question," he continued,"we have to wait until most of the crew is awake. If they're asleep, it defeats the purpose of fooling them. And then I don't get to throw stuff out of the window."

"Only you would think that throwing a manikin out of a window would be fun." Even as she said that, Danu couldn't refute the captain's logic. If he wanted his men to fear and respect him, he needed to appear ruthless from time to time. But…

"How exactly do you plan on explaining the girl?"

Captain Shakespeare chuckled softly. Danu could come up with things at the oddest moments, even if they weren't exactly odd in her mind. "I've already thought of that my dear. The girl is pretty enough that no one will find it suspicious if I bring her in here for a few hours.

"She could hardly hold a candle to you my dear, of course."

"Of course," Danu agreed.

"But as I said, she is pretty. The prettiest thing that the men will have seen in weeks. They don't know that you are her. So it should be a viable excuse."

"Uncle… I mean Captain Shakespeare," Danu corrected herself. "You are biased."

"Yes, but why should I not tilt the scale a little in the way of my favorite niece?"

"I'm your only niece," she said. " You can't exactly pick favorites out of a group of one."

"Alright then," he conceded. "Why shouldn't I tilt the scale in favor of my favorite out of my sister Winnifred's children?"

At those words Danu impulsively wrapped her arms around her uncle. "And you happen to be my favorite uncle. Uncle Dauntless," she teased him. He might hate it, but it was his name.

Captain Shakespeare just smiled and hugged his niece back. He might only have one niece, but she had eight other uncles. All were her father's brothers, but it was still an honor to be considered her favorite.

He would let her use his given name. But she would be the only one, other than her mother, to ever do so. Even Winnifred, his only sibling, had never dared call him Dauntless to his face unless infuriated.

The floorboards outside the door creaked ever so lightly. Danu jumped and ducked behind Captain Shakespeare's desk. She moved so silently that as the door opened, the first mate never even knew that Danu had been there.

"Captain, the men are getting antsy. They want you to deal with the two prisoners down in the brig. You'd better take care of it before they do, if you get what I mean."

"I'm coming," Captain Shakespeare said as he strode out of the room. Despite his urgent pace, he took the time to close the doors carefully behind him.

Danu waited until she could hear her uncle yell at the prisoners before coming out of her hiding spot. She sighed. Broken fingers. He was becoming a tad predictable.

She wandered over to the wall and turned the lamp. A hidden door opened to reveal a closet. Glancing enviously at the dresses she would never be able to wear, the would all be huge on her, she looked over to the regretfully small section of men's clothing.

Her uncle might have been prepared, but that applied in the loosest sense to his selection of clothin. She supposed that it might have something to do with a lack of fashion sense. And there was hardly any reason to dress extravagantly when no one was going to see you.

But that hardly explained the dresses. It might have something to do with a wider range of styles in women's clothing than men's, but it might no. Either way, Danu was going to have to have a heart to heart talk with her uncle. But back to the task on had. Clothes for the couple downstairs.

She pulled out a rather unusual white coat. Pairing it with: a linen shirt, a brown vest, and tan pants, she created a slightly odd and yet fashionable look at the the same it needed was boots, which she assumed he had, and the right hair.

Sighing, Danu sat down. She knew that earthen tones would look good on the man, but the woman was a different story. She hadn't gotten a good enough look at her to know what would look good with her complexion.

The trap door from the brig opened with a click and Danu knew that the manikin had just been thrown overboard. The girls screams, a bit faked to her ears, confirmed her suspicions.

"Get in there wench," Danu heard her uncle say as he shoved the woman into his quarters. "Well, that went rather well. Wouldn't you agree?"

"I can't believe that your crew fell for that," the woman said. "And where in god's name did you get that manikin?"

"I have a few tricks up my sleeve," Captain Shakespeare said. Pulling Danu from the closet. "More than a few, I suppose. But…"

Danu gasped as she looked at the woman. There was no denying what she was seeing. This woman had the pale hair and skin that came only from the daughters of the moon. And her eyes… they were silver.

The woman was a star. A pale radiant creature of the night. She had little to no coloring, but was sheer beauty all the same.

Danu suddenly knew what dress would look perfect on her. The silver one in the closet. A silver that was a perfect match with her eyes, and then embroidery that started out white at the top and gradually darkened until it was black at the bottom.

Running back to the closet, Danu grabbed both outfits and almost tripped over her own feet as she scrambled to return. Almost. She just knew that they would look so much better in what she had picked out.

"You'll have to excuse my niece," Captain Shakespeare said. "She has a tendency to become excited over rather small things."

"You wouldn't happen to be talking about me?" Danu teased. "I have just the clothes for you two. And…"

"Tristan," the man offered. Tristan. So that was his name. In an odd way it suited him.

"Tristan," Danu continued. "I believe that my uncle will be able to help you fix that awful mop that you call hair."

The woman, no, star giggled. She knew that it was true. His hair was simply a mess.

"And for you my dear, I have this. You two won't match each other, but that might be for the best."

The star smiled. " Thank you," she said quietly. "And my name is Yvaine. It might as well be used."

Danu smiled as well. She might have found a friend. The trip was proving to be less boring than she had thought just two days ago.

A glimmer around Yvaine's neck caught Danu's eye. She looked closer and saw the gaudiest necklace she had ever set eyes upon. Gold with a large diamond pendant. It didn't match the dress at all.

"Yvaine," Danu said. " While I have to admit that your necklace is lovely, it is rather conspicuous. Is there any sentimental value attached to it?"

Yvaine responded like lightning. "Oh no. I've wanted to be rid of the thing since I found it. I just had no one to give it to. Besides, it would look much better on you than me."

Danu knew this was true. Stars only looked good in white, black, and silver. The fact that Yvaine had yet to have had her necklace stolen was rather remarkable.

"I…" Danu started and then hesitated. "I couldn't," she finished, feeling rather guilty.

"Nonsense," Yvaine replied. "Silver suits me better and I'm sure that I can find a new necklace. But, it it is too ostentatious for you…"

"That's not what I meant," Danu cut her off. "I love it. But I meant that I couldn't take anything so valuable from you."

Yvaine shrugged. The necklace had no importance to her. She hardly even noticed its worth. Earthly possessions meant little to her.

As Yvaine clasped the necklace around Danu's throat, the girl gazed in amazement at the diamond. It was cut beautifully, perfectly, and was over half the size of her palm. It was the most impressive gemstone that she had seen in her life.

"Thank you ," the girl gasped as she embraced the star. "This has to be the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me."

Yvaine laughed at the girl's antics. "So I gave you an old necklace that I didn't want," she said. "It's not that big of a deal.

**A/N: Alright. This story seems to be fairly popular. But all who read it are visitors. Alright I do love reviews and I do accept anonymous ones so it would be wonderful to get at least one. I can't give metaphorical cookies to anyone if I don't know who they are. Has anyone guessed where I got my name for Captain Shakespeare? **

**All you Septimus fans out there, patience. Just one more chapter to go and then you'll get to meet him. I haven't introduced him in the chapter I have all planned out, but never fear. I'll mention him and in chapter four, it's all Septimus. Okay. Not exactly. But that's beside the point. **

**Did I mention that I love all my readers. It's been amazing to have you.**


	3. The Storm

**Chapter 3**

**The Storm**

Days passed and Danu was extrodianrily glad to have a friend aboard the ship. She and Yvaine could, and often did, talk through all hours of the night and day. It turned out that had different circumstances arisen, they would have likely been lifelong friends.

As it was, it was highly likely that they would only see each other for a few more days before parting ways forever. Yvaine knew that Danu knew that she was a star. If everything went according to plan, A or B, she would probably be back home in the sky soon.

But Danu could see that Yvaine's plan was crumbling to peices before her very eyes. Yvaine just didn't realize it. She just couldn't see that she was head over heals in love with a boy called Tristain Thorn.

And it was Danu's ears that listened when Yvaine prattled on and on about him. Sometimes without even realizing it. It was rather obvious to her friend that she had given him her heart. If only Yvaine would realize it.

But giving her heart away would keep her safer than anyone person could on thier own. It would keep her safe from anyone who wanted to cut out her heart and eat it. When her heart truly belonged to another, she no longer kept that transfer of immortality. He would live as long as she did.

Danu shook her head. She seriously needed to stop being overly philosophical at times like these. It was almost as bad as the times when she stated thinking about a edguy, one she had never met before, and started daydreaming about him. She had better things to do, but being alone hardly improved her focus.

The ship lurched to the left as lightning struck for the fifth time that hour. Danu held on to her chair for dear life. Thunder rumbled in the air. For the millionth time Danu wished that she could be on deck.

Not because she liked storms. In all honesty, she was terrified of the flashing lights and crashing sounds that accompanied the summer storms. But she was even more afraid of them when she was all alone. She was scared enough to face the lightning and the chance of dying if someone else would be around her.

Tristain and Yvaine were on deck helping. Tristain was because he was supposidly the captain's nephew and heeded to learn tricks of the trade. Yvaine, she was up there because Tristain was.

Yvaine hardly let Tristain out of her sight. If he was practicing with a sword, she had to be watching to make sure that he didn't wind up hurting himself. If he was doing something where she might be able to help him, then she was going to be there ready.

Danu envied Yvaine. While bothe she and Tristain were compleatly oblivious, the clearly loved each other. And Yvain was truly lucky to have the love and devotion of a man like Tristain.

Fingering the heavy chain of the necklace about her throat, Danu sighed softly. She desperately longed to be loved in the same way that Yvaine was loved by Tristain. But, with her being shut away from anyone and everyone, it hardly seemed likely.

How could anyone love her if they didn't even know that she existed? If they had never met her let alone talked to her. It was impossible.

The ship lurched again, and Danu decided that it was high time for her to go to sleep. Even with the lingering doubt in her mind that she would not be able to achieve a respite from her fears, the blankets looked warm and inviting.

Danu climbed into her bed and tried to drift off. Just as she was about to enter the world of dreams, ligtning flashed. She sat bolt upright and opened her mouth, but her screams were swallowed bu the sound of thunder.

Clamping her mouth shut, thakfully no one had come running at her screams, she tried to calm herself down. Her whole body shook with the effort it took her to be quiet when ligtning struck again.

Tears streamed down Danu's face as she struggled to keep from screaming. She hugged her blankets as close to her as physically possible. Her arms and legs burned as she curled in upon herself. Shaking from the thunder still ringing in her ears, Danu beganto sob.

Her body shook with each heaving sob. No longer trying to be quiet, the fear had overcome her, her crying grew in volume. Someone should have heard, apart from the fact that the pelting rain disquised any and all noise.

Clinging on to her beadclothes for all she was worth, danu's musscels relaxedone by one. Softly, gently, she fell asleep and into dreams about a tall man with dark peircing eyes.

**A/N: So I said that I'd try to get Septimus into this chapter. It was a lot harder than I anticipated. In case you can't tell. He's the one that she's dreaming about. Hopefully it will all make sense later.**

**On a less happy note. I will probably not update for quite some time now. I somehow managed to hurt my wrist while at school and guess what. It turns out that I have tendonitis which is temporary, so... Hopefuly I'll be able to write more in a few weeks. But the brace means that it's hard to do just about anything and I have to get a splint so that it will be completly imobilized. **

**Recap. Septimus will be in the next chapter. He's fully introduced there and everything. And you probably won't get it for a while. The only reason I managed to type this up is I did it one handed while on spring break. And yes, I get that our spring break is a little late. Whatever.**


	4. Lakeside Gravity

**Lakeside Gravity**

Danu was curled up in her chair with the book Yvaine had given her. Her boots stuck out of the fluffy mess of skirt and petticoats that she wore as they rested on the armrest. Her long brown hair hung down the other side of the chair.

She felt the slight dip of the ship that signaled descent, and sighed. Sticking a random piece of parchment in the pages, she stretched the kinks out of her neck and sat up. The door was still safely shut, which meant that she had a few moments more than she originally thought.

She braced herself for impact, grateful that this time someone had managed to land the ship relatively smoothly. The previous landing had jarred her much more than she would have liked.

She paced around her cabin six times, the heels of her boots lightly tapping on the wooden floor. Her cabin wasn't particularly large, but she paced it diligently, biding her time. She wanted to get out of the stuffy space, but was still afraid to do so.

There was something about being on land that made all of the crew members more adventurous. They usually spent the first day lazing about near the ship, but hardly paid much attention to their surroundings and people. The only ones they cared about were the ones with weapons.

Danu slipped her boots off her feet. She held them in her hand and carefully opened the door. She continued to hold her boots in one hand as she crept along. Her skirt, though much more voluminous than preferred for sneaking around, hardly rustled at all as she turned one corner after another.

There was a huge ruckus from the top deck, and Danu stepped back a bit before continuing on. She had no clue what was going on, but it didn't look like anyone was going to be coming down for quite some time.

She continued on for only a few moments before hearing slight creaking and music. She knew that her uncle had a music machine thing, she couldn't remember its proper name, but he didn't creak floorboards that way when he played it. There was too much carpet in his cabin.

She moved silently, almost stalking the noise. The creak was subtle, so subtle that anyone not looking for it would have missed it. In all the commotion that was happening above deck, Danu was surprised that she had heard it in spite of the fact that she had conditioned herself to respond to even the slightest noise.

She leaned against the wall, just a few feet from where a man dressed all in black stood. He had unsheathed his sword, and appeared to be taking great care to make as little noise as possible.

"Come here often?" Danu asked. She couldn't help but try to lighten what appeared to be a very tense moment for him.

"Who are you?" He tensed up even more, his gloves hiding the whiteness of his knuckles as he gripped his sword even tighter.

"That's no way to treat a lady."

The man looked her over. In her blue dress, the golden chain around her neck glimmered in the light. He recognized the chain instead of the diamond. He had seen the thick coil around his father's neck his whole life.

"I suppose not," he said as he sheathed his sword. He removed his gloves and walked towards Danu, a strange contemplative look in his eyes.

She became increasingly aware of her height, or lack thereof. He was tall, with dark hair and black eyes that seemed to pierce her soul. She felt her breath hitch in her throat, almost as if it was stuck. There was a certain attraction that she had never felt before.

The man picked up the pendant. In his hands the stone turned from a diamond to a ruby. Danu stared at the man in front of her with shock. She hadn't ever expected a prince to even speak to her.

She was about to drop to her knees. She would have had the necklace not stopped her before she had lowered herself only a few inches to the degree of a princess to a king. She stood again, feeling more confused than ever.

"My lord, please forgive my impertinence. I was not aware of your identity."

He was much too young to be Primus, and the only other prince alive was Septimus. He had the most notorious reputation. But whatever could be said about him, he was powerful and alive. He could cut off her head in an instant if he felt like it.

He walked around her, letting go of the pendant as he circled. His eyes wandered over every inch of her from her light brown hair tumbling down her back, to the faintest touch of a blush on her cheeks. What he noticed the most, was that her eyes were the most brilliant shade of blue.

He would have sworn that they were brighter than the sky and more intense than the ocean. They burned with emotion, with only a hint of fear at the surface. He had always favored the color blue, but in that moment he loved it.

"Strong willed, a good sense of pride, common sense. You have some fine traits, even if you are a little short."

"I'm not short," Danu replied a little quickly.

"Feisty too. I would say that you meet most of the qualifications. Now tell me, who is your next of kin?"

**And I'm going to leave it here for now. Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to this. I didn't expect my wrist to hurt for as long as it did. I'm still working on everything, it's just been on hold for longer than I would have originally liked. Thank you all for putting up with me and my sporadic updates. I'll try to get the next chapter up next week.**


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